LOL, oh come on, they are not really that bad, just a little worse than a piece of licorice

I remember the first high-power rifle match I shot, guy next to me was shooting a mini-14 a an he did slow fire prone, his sling tension was putting his rounds on my target

The new minis a have been improved with the tapered barrels. I have the 581 series with the tapered barrel and shoots great. If you have the190 series you can add a barrel stabilizer like the accustrut or more rod. users have been getting great results with it. Will Iadded the mmost rod just for looks. As for a scope, I bought a Millet dms 1-4. It's great for close to medium range shooting.

Here are my thoughts. First, the mini is designed as a Ranch Rifle and is not designed to be a highly accurate firearm. My feeling is that the best optic for the mini is one that will allow you to use it for quick shots at short to medium distance.

I like the 2-7 power for the mini. A 2-7 power scope works well (for me) for close shots 25-50 yards and can still reach out easily to 100 yards and beyond. This makes the rifle a good plinker, varmit shooter, and home defense rifle. You can buy 2-7X scopes at different price ranges and with different features/reticles. They are also available in 1 inch and 30mm (you can buy 30mm Ruger Rings for a reasonble price if you do some searches.

The other option is a red-dot if you like that. There are several ways to go. First, GG&G makes a really sweet mount for a mini red dot that uses the ring mount locations. They also have a rail that does the same BUT the rail raises the mount up too high in my opinion.http://www.gggaz.com/ruger-mini-14-r...pe-mounts.html

Then there are the scout mounts like the ultimak. I personally don't care for my scope being mounted that far forward.

The other red-dot mounting possibility is to put a red-dot in the rings. I did this with an 30mm Ultra-Dot 6. These are not your average Chinese red-dots they are made in Japan and are much higher quality than your average Bushnell Trophy red-dot. The Ultra-Dot will actually fit in the stock 30mm rings which is pretty sweet.

I am happy with the 4X scopes I put on my Mini 14 and 30. Plain simple duplex crosshair Weaver scopes since they are fun guns.
IF I were to hunt with them I would have used 4X or 2X7 Leupold dupelx scopes.